


Home Is

by ratherbefree



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 20:11:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10974519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratherbefree/pseuds/ratherbefree
Summary: “Well, what do you think I should do?”Somewhat serious Skype session turns silly turns serious again.





	Home Is

**Author's Note:**

  * For [randomramblesff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomramblesff/gifts).



> written as a ((rather belated)) birthday fic lol

“Annie Edison, thank you for joining me.” The sound and video aren’t completely in sync at first, with his voice sounding warbled and dull around the edges and the visual itself slightly blurry, like when she was younger and took off her glasses and tried to read an entire page of small text. He’s there, she can see that, but the details are fuzzy. It’s Jeff, but not. 

Nevertheless she grins, because even with the mangled audio and not-quite-there video it’s the first time she’s _seen_ him in three days and maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder or maybe he’s always had this effect on her but either way she can’t help the way she reacts to him. She has the feeling it’s the latter. 

But she presses her lips together to keep up with the bit and ducks her head, all mock seriousness. “It’s my pleasure.” 

When she looks back up, the connection is clearer and he’s smiling so she figures it’s okay to shift her laptop back a little and lean across the kitchen table, resting her temple on her fist. 

“What, bored of me already?” 

She knows he’s only teasing so she rolls her eyes before answering, “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.” 

“Fighting crime?” 

She hums. “More pushing paper. I sat in on three meetings today. _Three,_ Jeff.” 

“Yikes,” he winces in sympathy, “and I can hardly make it through one.” 

“Well, I mean…” she shrugs. “You’ve got the dean to deal with, I guess.” 

He tilts his head to the side and smiles with just the appropriate hint of smirk. “I guess.”

She expected that seeing him again might make her feel wistful. It’s only been a few days since she last saw him in person and less than two weeks since he kissed her in the study room but something about the distance between them makes the short amount of time feel much longer. Seeing him like this - familiar but with the the computer screen stripping away the life in his skin - causes a physical pain in her chest. As if the need that she feels for him has hit her not just with a pang but with a blow. 

She wants to tell him all of this. Wants to ask him if he feels the same way. After his confession before she left, she thinks it could be possible. 

Instead she says, “How’s your day been?” 

He shrugs almost self deprecatingly. “Not anything exciting. We haven’t done much since you and Abed left. Mostly we’ve been revelling in our newfound peace and quiet.” 

“Ha ha.” 

He doesn’t need her prompt of _seriously, though_ to explain further. “Things are the same. I mean, it’s summer after all.” 

“Yeah,” she finds herself nodding as if she knows what means, but she doesn’t have a clue. It occurs to her, suddenly, that despite the modest amount of time they would spend together with the group during the summer vacation, she never really knew what Jeff got up to on his own. Oh, she’s sure that she must have wondered at some point (probably during that first summer they knew each other, when the twinkling memory of a kiss was all she could think about) but despite the definite question, she’s never received an answer. 

And he must notice that she hasn’t really responded to his insinuation, because he pipes up again, speaking like someone who has just counted down to 1 in their head. “You know, the dean offered me a job.” 

Annie raises her eyebrows. Now they’re getting somewhere. “Really?” 

He nods, eyes wide, like maybe he’s just digesting the news himself for the first time. “Teaching summer school. Six weeks, but only one class a day.” 

“Do you think you’re gonna take it?” She has to actively swallow down a lump of disappointment threatening to make its way into her voice, but she’s not sure why. She should be a lot happier for him - he’s her friend, first; secondly, more selfishly, at least this way she knows he won’t spend the summer feeling lonely and sinking further into the spiral she often fears he’s locked into. 

Of course, there were other ways she imagined he could spend the next ten weeks while she’s away, but it’s not until now that she realises just how real they had become to her. When she first indulged in this little fantasy, it was harmless. She imagined him being there, with her. Sharing in the moments she found particularly funny or frustrating. It was something to pass the time. Maybe she hadn’t considered how much she truly _wanted_ that until now because there hadn’t been much of an alternative. She hadn’t thought there’d be anything going on for him back home.

“I don’t know,” he sighs heavily. “I mean, the pay’s alright and all, but I could get by without it.”

She nods slowly, pressing her lips together. “Right.”

Jeff regards her curiously for a minute, waiting. When she doesn’t say anything else, he prods, “Well?” 

“Well, what?” 

“Well, what do you think I should do?” 

It would be so, so easy to ask him not to take it, tell him what she wants to happen instead. And she’s aware of that, but…but it wouldn’t be fair.

Then again, if she doesn’t ask, she might have to wait another ten weeks before she knows where they stand. 

“I don’t know.” 

“Right. Helpful.” 

She gives him a smile and shrug that hopefully conveys apology as he shifts backwards in frame and tilts the laptop to better accommodate the view. It’s then that Annie becomes aware of the pillows stuffed behind him and the headboard in the background. 

“You’re in bed right now?” She asks despite herself, and feels the telltale heat rising to her cheeks immediately after.

He raises an eyebrow at her. “Yes?”

“Right, um.” She gives a jerky nod. “I was just asking. You know, ‘cause there’s. Pillows.” 

“Yeeeah,” he draws it out, settling back against the headboard, looking as though he’s thoroughly enjoying her discomfort. 

“Not that it’s strange or anything,” she offers. “Just, ‘cause we’re talking. And you’re in bed.”

He doesn’t say anything, just continues wearing that dumb, shit-eating grin he always has whenever she does something he finds particularly amusing. 

He knows exactly what he’s doing, so Annie doesn’t feel any guilt when she says, “Stop that.” 

“Stop what?” He replies, trying his best to seem mock outraged and failing miserably. 

“Making me flustered! And nervous, and rambly. It’s embarrassing.” 

“I’m not doing anything.” 

But he can’t even say it with a straight face, and his chuckle makes her laugh, and for a moment she forgets to think about anything else because they’re just laughing together and it feels like old times. 

But it’s not, it’s different, he’s there and she’s here, and it’s gonna be ten long weeks before she sees him in person again - but, she can change that. Or try to, at least. 

The words tumble out in a rush. “I was hoping you could come visit me sometime.”

He stops laughing and just stares for a second, benign smile frozen on his face. She watches, wide-eyed, as he carefully adjusts. 

“You want me to go…there?”

She nods.

“To be with you?” 

She nods again. 

His hesitation goes on a beat too long, and all sorts of excuses find their way to her lips - _it’s okay, you don’t have to, you probably wouldn’t want to come, anyway, it’s fine._

Jeff’s eyes slide to the side, and she panics a little about the possibility that he’s ignoring her while he tries to think of a good reason not to go, but then they flick back to hers, and-

“Yes.” 

Her heart stops and she feels herself freeze up. Cold then warm, and she breathes out a little of the nervous tension she seems to suddenly have acquired. “Yeah?”

“ _Yes,_ Annie.”

She didn’t think a three letter word could sound so wonderful. 

But wait, “What about summer school?”

“It’s only six weeks,” he offers, “that’s almost an entire month of leeway.” 

“Yeah,” she can feel it all falling into place, her fingers itching to touch him. She can’t, but she can always use her hands for planning instead. 

She just got to DC and it’s not like she’s going home anytime soon but a part of home is coming _to her_ and as much as she’s excited about her own new adventure there’s comfort in that fact. 

She can’t wait.


End file.
